The Miami Heat would entertain trading Jimmy Butler if the right offer came along, but the situation has not risen to the level where any move is imminent -- or, for now, being sought after by any of the parties involved, league sources told CBS Sports this week.
Trade rumors about Butler, the Heat star who could enter free agency this summer, began earlier this week. They then took a very public and personal turn between Bernie Lee, Butler's agent, and ESPN reporter Shams Charnia.
On Wednesday, ESPN reported that Butler's agent had indicated his client would be interested in being traded to Phoenix, along with Dallas, Golden State and Houston. That felt like standard, if significant, stuff. This is an era of player movement, and Butler wanting to go somewhere else wouldn't be an earth-shattering turn of events.
Then came something quite unusual: The clapback.
Lee, in posts on social media, refuted the report aggressively and called the reporting "fabricated." It was a public spectacle, one that conjured up popcorn-eating social media voyeurs taking in the breaking-news-turned-social-media-melee with glee.
But sources, including those within the Heat organization, painted a much more nuanced picture of where things stand with Butler: One in which everyone acknowledges a trade could happen, but in which any movement has yet to pick up significant steam.
A source with the Suns also said while there was a feeling of some kind of Butler interest in their team, things were not at all advanced, nor as clear-cut as "people seem to think."
It's worth remembering that Butler entered the season without the extension he'd hoped for, creating enough daylight between himself and Miami's front office to raise eyebrows across the NBA, and push speculation that Butler might be a viable and important trade target.
That would make Butler trade talk, or teams calling the Heat about Butler's availability, the likely outcome.
Sources say that's just what's happened -- but only in the most early of stages and typical of ways. Nothing has advanced to anything that could be described as serious talks.
"Everyone knows Jimmy could be available -- that was always the case with how things went with his contract," one league source who's familiar with the Heat's thinking said. "But what constitutes a 'trade talk'? People call all the time. And usually they're told no. Is that 'trade talk?' Technically, it is. But there's levels to it."
Added a Heat source: "We have no sense Jimmy wants out, or that we want to trade him. But we always listen."
Still, sources say, the Heat have thought enough about this to know a few key points:
- They want to win now, and any Butler trade -- or the decision not to trade him -- would hinge on still remaining a contender. "We don't do rebuilds," one Heat source joked. They'd want a key piece that could help them now as part of any deal.
- The Heat aren't worried about their position in the first apron and how it might hamper a Butler trade. Sources they feel they can successfully navigate those challenges if the time comes to do so, and that they've thought about what such a move might require.
The Heat source also said ESPN's report about "listening" to trade offers wasn't necessarily wrong because "trade conversations -- 'hey, what do you think about this' -- happen all the time."
A high-level source with the Phoenix Suns said there's truth in both sides of the reporter vs. agent brouhaha -- and some misunderstanding in the current dialogue out there surrounding Butler.
"What's been reported is probably 50-50 in terms of accuracy," the source said. "But I don't think Bernie (Lee)'s not out there calling people about Jimmy."
As for whether or not Butler has indicated where he'd prefer to be traded if something did materialize? Whether the Warriors, Rockets, Mavericks or Suns could turn the Heat's willingness to listen into a willingness to deal?
That comes down to who you want to believe -- NBA media's most successful working news-breaker, or an agent saying very publicly and very forcefully that it's not so.
